Please share your thoughts on proposed PISD Ranking system (Plano: transfer, school district)

[vmsunshine]

Yesterday, I attended meeting about proposed PISD Ranking system.
In summary, they are planning to eliminate Ranking for above 10%. There will be two GPA calculated. Cumulative and Ranking GPA. Ranking GPA is exclusively for computing 10% and ranks.

Would this help kids in college admission process?

[aggie972]

I know Texas A&M auto admits if you're top 25% and have a 1300+ on the SAT Math+Verbal. I think I'd want to know if I were between 10-25%. It might work out okay for PISD if universities just "assign" a rank based on reported GPA since PISD is a competitive school district.

[Annikan]

will they have valedictorians?

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by aggie972

I know Texas A&M auto admits if you're top 25% and have a 1300+ on the SAT Math+Verbal. I think I'd want to know if I were between 10-25%. It might work out okay for PISD if schools just "assign" a rank based on reported GPA since PISD is a competitive school district.

FWIIW. At A&M the autoadmit thing varies greatly by college and program. For example the engineering school rule is top 25% and a 1360 new test SAT score and a high minimum "Aggie Math Test" score - that test is not a joke. Miss any of those metrics and one can still earn a provisional/probationary admission but that is a tough road. Technically no student is fully admitted into Aggie engineering until their JR. year.

ETA - DD tells me an old test 1300 SAT can still work for engineering under certain circumstances.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by vmsunshine

Yesterday, I attended meeting about proposed PISD Ranking system.
In summary, they are planning to eliminate Ranking for above 10%. There will be two GPA calculated. Cumulative and Ranking GPA. Ranking GPA is exclusively for computing 10% and ranks.

Would this help kids in college admission process?

Many of the competitive high schools have already made this move, Highland Park HS is one example. Texas state law requires the top 10% to be ranked.

I think it's good for college admissions in an extremely competitive school like Plano's HS's where a student with straight A's can be penalized for not gaming the GPA system and end up with a lower class rank than at a less competitive high school. It basically forces the college admissions offices to actually evaluate the whole student instead of accepting / denying based on Rank + SAT criteria. Especially helpful for getting students into the elite state schools.

[UnfairPark]

I agree. It can only help, not hurt.

[BayTexan]

I was not able to attend the presentation. Does anyone know when this will be implemented once finalized (starting which year)?

[jennifw]

Originally Posted by EDS_

ETA - DD tells me an old test 1300 SAT can still work for engineering under certain circumstances.

We should be nearing the end of the "old SAT." The new one has been in place for 2 years now.

As far as the ranking question, I think its a good thing. My daughter went to a school that didn't have weighted classes freshman year and she transferred to a school that does as a sophomore. Even with almost all straight A's, she can't break that top 10% because all of her freshman classes were considered "on-level." It would be great to have colleges look at her whole being and not just a number.

[Waterdragon8212]

The competitive privates have done this for some time. It may be primarily due to their reputations, but they don't seem to be lacking in UT admits (or other auto-admit schools)...Plano is such a massive district, I'm guessing it could help those kids that have a "lower" rank, but still have an absurdly high GPA - which seems to be the case for a number of kids I've known throughout the years.

As a side note, the inner Longhorn in me can't help but chuckle at "Aggie Math Test." I know EDS knows his stuff - especially when it comes to A&M - but that one really took me back to the good 'ole days full of Aggie jokes. Were I a wittier individual, I would have crafted one for this occasion...

[gsoy]

This can be game changer for top students who don't want to play the GPA game and switch to privates.